New digs for dogs (and cats)

The city of Jacksonville celebrated the grand opening of the new animal shelter facility, located at 208 Tena Street, Monday, March 25.

Mayor-elect Randy Gorham addressed those gathered for the ribbon-cutting as Mayor Dick Stone was unavailable.

“This facility was purchased by the city council last fall for right at $100,000,” Gorham stated.

With about $75,000 in renovation, this building is ready to house our animal control here in our town for animals within our city limits. This building will provide a better a facility to house and provide adoption services for the animals. This building is a vast improvement over the old shelter with a capacity of approximately five times the animals and will serve this community for years to come.”

The renovations included the replacement of interior walls, new paint and flooring.

Chief of Police Andrew Hawkes also spoke, noting when he first arrived in Jacksonville he had received numerous comments from citizens stating they wished the city would buy the old animal shelter.

“Fortunately, our new city manager saw the need as well,” Hawkes said. “Our council and city manager were able to get this building, as councilman Gorham said, at a great price. We were able to renovate it using city employees. We just want to thank everybody that helped us along the way, Friends of the Animal Shelter especially, and Keep Jacksonville Beautiful. The fire department came over here and chipped in doing some manual labor. The animal control staff has been remarkable. Captain Price, who is over the animal control division at the police department, spent weekend after weekend over here and so did his wife doing anything that needed to be done for the grand opening today.”

Hawkes also asked everyone to help “spread the word” that the shelter was open with “plenty of room to help get the strays off the streets of Jacksonville.”

The animal shelter is open 8 a.m.-5 p.m. Monday-Friday and 8 a.m.-12 p.m. on Saturday. The shelter can be contacted at (903) 339-3386.

Visit the Facebook page Jacksonville, Texas Animal Shelter to view animals ready for adoption, or visit the shelter at 208 Tena St.